Sometimes we become casualties along the path of life not for what we did wrong but for whom we took along. It happened to Abram who travelled hundreds of miles into the centre of his Promise yet was blinded to where he had got, because he had in his company someone whose name meant “veil” or “covering.” The day he broke from that fond association, God said to him, “Lift up NOW thine eyes … For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it” (Genesis 13:14-15). Wrong connections may not always kill; sometimes they drag and delay covenants.
Some lives are under a lethal curse that may never show on their fine faces. Those who connect with them merely for the fineness of their face come under the spell of what follows them. The curse they carry might not take the form of instant disasters. They could even be religious folks enjoying God’s favours in other bountiful forms that could further blind the undiscerning to what follows them.
Once upon a time, God pronounced such a terminal sentence upon an age-category in Israel due to their collective sin of murmuring. God said that they were to be wasted in the wilderness; that they would not enter the Promised land because they had doubted His ability to take them there. They did not all drop dead as soon as that curse was spoken. It took thirty-eight years for the curse to complete its course. During that while, those victims, like everyone else, enjoyed manna from heaven, drank miracle water from the rocks, joined the worship at the tabernacle. Despite those favours, only a fool was to be blinded to the fact that something followed them from the day that the sentence proceeded from God.
15 For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed.
16 So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people,
17 That the LORD spake unto me, saying,
18 Thou art to PASS OVER … (Deuteronomy 2:15-18).
According to the New International Version,
15 The Lord’s hand was against them until he had completely eliminated them from the camp.
16 Now when the last of these fighting men among the people had died, 17 the Lord said to me, 18 “TODAY you are to pass by …”
Something was ‘against’ that group of people; something unseen but whose effects could be seen; something called “the hand of the LORD.” That ‘hand’ had an agenda: to eliminate them selectively and gradually “from among” their kin. Meanwhile, they would be enjoying God’s sunshine and rainfall with everyone else, as if nothing stood ‘against’ them in the realms of the spirit; nothing that marked them apart from the rest.
While the cursed age-group lingered along with the rest, Promised Land was delayed. The holy others could not enter their blessed inheritance because they carried a baggage; they were in the company of a cursed people. The day the last of those people died, God announced, “Today is your Passover!”
Those people were not necessarily thieves and robbers or heathens, yet a ‘hand’ had been following them because of history; a ‘hand’ unseen that was ‘against’ them, monitoring them UNTIL they should have been destroyed. Passover never came for the holy folks until the last of the cursed population had been ‘eliminated’ from among them. Not devils or God was responsible for the delay in their lives. Their association was.
How beautiful or religious a person is does not necessarily mean that you can ‘travel’ with them. Sometimes entry into Promised Land can be delayed by a wrong connection. Thirty-eight years of one’s life is not a small time to waste in the wilderness because of a people with a ‘hand’ monitoring them for destruction. If we should judge them merely by the miracle manna that they eat, or the pillars of cloud and fire that they also follow, we could also come under the Hand that is ‘against’ them.
The prophet Isaiah reported a similar experience: “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD” (Isaiah 6:1). According to some interpretations, the vision of the prophet had been hindered for as long as that ‘good’ king lingered in his life. It took a disconnection at one level for him to achieve connection with the Divine.
In life, there are some connections that are inevitable, and others that, though inevitable are still negotiable. When the signs begin to show, sentiments could be a costly consideration. Disconnection might hasten possession. May God open your eyes and grant you wisdom.
O God, eliminate from my life whatever causes delay or blindness. May this day be Passover for me. Whatever it takes, O Lord, bring me speedily into my inheritance, in Jesus name. Amen.
From The Preacher’s diary,
February 15, 2022.
